Walmart has agreed to pay $50m to resolve US government allegations that its pharmacies knowingly filled thousands of invalid opioid and other controlled-substance prescriptions
The settlement addresses alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act dating from June 2013.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint, filed in December 2020 and amended in 2022 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, alleged that Walmart’s compliance personnel knew certain prescribers were operating “pill mills” but allowed prescriptions from them to be filled.
The government also alleged that Walmart pharmacists filled prescriptions with apparent warning signs, including dangerous drug combinations, repeated high-dose opioid prescriptions and early refill requests.
Pharmacists reportedly raised concerns through thousands of “refusal-to-fill” reports.
According to the complaint, Walmart’s compliance team prioritised other business objectives instead of investigating those reports.
One compliance director allegedly described “driving sales and patient awareness” as a better use of management time than analysing the reports.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) assistant administrator Cheri Oz said: “Filling illegitimate opioid prescriptions puts patients and communities at risk and undermines the safeguards designed to prevent the diversion and misuse of potentially addictive medications.
“This settlement addresses past conduct while establishing clear compliance obligations designed to strengthen safeguards and help prevent these failures from happening again.”
Walmart has also signed a memorandum of agreement with the DEA.
The company must establish a hotline for employees and patients to report suspected illegal dispensing, monitor pharmacy dispensing patterns and create a process for reviewing prescribers suspected of unlawful prescribing.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the department would enforce pharmacies’ obligations “ensuring that potential profits never justify aiding our Nation’s opioid epidemic”.
Walmart said in a regulatory disclosure that it settled the case without admitting liability and had accrued an “immaterial” amount as of 31 July 2026.
The settlement comes as Walmart reported second-quarter net sales of $186.10bn, up 5.9% year on year, and raised its fiscal 2027 guidance.
